/ Modified jan 5, 2017 10:54 a.m.

Tucson Church Opens Doors to Refugees Fleeing Violence

Church basement converted into living quarters for 50 Central American women, children.

Church Refuge 1

Gang violence is pushing a new wave of Central Americans to flee their country to seek asylum in the U.S., prompting Immigration and Customs Enforcement to ask for help from Tucson’s religious community.

Customs and Border Protection has not released figures on the size of the latest surge of Central American women and children crossing into the U.S., but a high-ranking CBP official asked the United Methodist bishop responsible for Southern Arizona for help.

Two Tucson churches, under the leadership of Reverend Roland Loomis, have converted one undisclosed church basement into living quarters for up to 50 refugee women with children.

“People asked, ‘Do we have money for this?’ I said no. We don’t know. How long is it going to last? We don’t know. How many people? Up to 40 or 50 a day. We don’t know. But we knew as a church that this is something we are called to do,” Loomis said.

Late yesterday, the National United Methodists Committee on Relief granted the churches $60,000 for the effort. That pays for food, but the two United Methodist churches say they still need more supplies and volunteers.

For more information, visit the Inn Project.

By posting comments, you agree to our
AZPM encourages comments, but comments that contain profanity, unrelated information, threats, libel, defamatory statements, obscenities, pornography or that violate the law are not allowed. Comments that promote commercial products or services are not allowed. Comments in violation of this policy will be removed. Continued posting of comments that violate this policy will result in the commenter being banned from the site.

By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.
AZPM is a service of the University of Arizona and our broadcast stations are licensed to the Arizona Board of Regents who hold the trademarks for Arizona Public Media and AZPM. We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples.
The University of Arizona